Vegetarian Soup in Chinatown

 

A very different bowl of soup today, a 100% vegetarian bowl of abundant flavours, textures and colours, that I slurped my way through out in District 5, HCMC’s Chinatown. Today is the first day of the lunar month, so many vendors sell wholly vegetarian dishes, to suit the practices of their Buddhist customers.

This soup contained wontons filled with a taro mixture (instead of pork), fresh rice noodles which were tinted by the bright orange broth, two (maybe more) kinds of mushroom, squares of deep fried tofu, (chunks of) tomato and cabbage, shredded banana flour and morning glory, bean shoots, a few fresh green herbs, and something crumbled on top for the final flourish, I think it was wafer thin sheets of deep fried bean curd. As the wide girthed soup lady plonked it down in front of me, it was such an explosion of colour that I was dying to take a photo. However this was a particularly intimate table and seating arrangement, even by Saigon street food standards. I was shoulder to shoulder with a rather stern looking Buddhist nun, so it didn’t feel like the time to whip out my camera.

The food was much more successful than the intended purpose of my visit to Chinatown, to buy some fabric at a market out there. I did find a lot of fabric for sale. Actually I think I found the mecca of ‘day pyjama’ fabric for Saigon women, (see woman in yellow above) I passed stall after stall of this stretchy synthetic stuff in every garish pattern you could imagine. I know it suits millions of Vietnamese women, but not what I was after.

The photos above were taken at a pagoda just around the corner from the Fabric market. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been to it before. Though the hustle and bustle of Chinatown usually leaves me fairly disoriented, so I may have stumbled upon it another time. It was quite busy here, again because of the new moon. I think I saw the youngest worshippers I’m yet to encounter; a very small three year old girl praying most enthusiastically, and being very bossy with her younger brother to make sure that he did too.

Hu Tieu

Pho may be Vietnam’s national dish, but out on the streets of Saigon, the soup that I see being enthusiastically slurped most often is Hu Tieu. I’ve heard it said that this pork based noodle soup has Chinese origins, so it’s a good idea to try it in Chinatown, though I think you’d find a fine example on almost any street here.

Sometimes it’s sold from old style wooden wagons, though more commonly the set up looks like this. This vendor sells near our house. I’ve been going here for breakfast on the weekend recently. She makes a very satisfying bowl of soup. The pork broth has just enough sweetness. And I like that you get extra greens on the side to add to your bowl; the curly leafed celery tasting one goes especially well.

The contents of the soup will vary from place to place. There will always be pork meat, but it may be fine slices, or minced, or a hunk of flesh still attached to the bone. The noodles may be wheat or rice, fresh or dried. A prawn is usually placed on top as a final flourish. At this place she also adds one fishball, the white orb you can see bobbing on the surface.

 The only problem is this little soup stand is quite popular, so we always seem to end up at the table in not such a great position, next to the man cleaning motorbike parts with some chemical cocktail. The smell of sweet pork broth and celery competes with toxic fumes. There is a solution though, keep your head close to the bowl, and slurp those noodles down as fast as you can. If you asked a Vietnamese person, they would probably say this is the only way to eat a bowl of soup anyhow. 

...some rain

This happened 5 minutes after I finished writing on Sunday. Ha!

It's taken from our front door.

(Oh - I just watched it, not such great viewing in this format, just turn up the sound and you'll get the idea.)

More weather whinges

The blasting hot season seems to have come to an end. Now we have days of cloud cover and “some” rain, but the weather is still not as it should be.

Again, yesterday as everything darkened and the temperature dropped, I was fooled into finding a strategic position to watch a downpour that never came. It did rain a little, but there was nothing satisfying about it. It didn’t cleanse and calm the city (or me) with its coolness, because when it doesn’t rain enough, all you get afterwards is steaminess. Sun showers are common these days too, which people here describe as two Gods in the sky. And the rain is so scattered. If there’s a shower and I ask someone at work about it the next day, even though they live in a nearby district it’s likely they didn’t get any rain.

To summarise, this rainy season is yet to have any conviction.

I don’t know how to take a photo of my discontent with the weather, so here’s something unrelated and more cheerful. I reckon I see a new poster around town every week, and when there’s nothing to commemorate or celebrate, you’ll just get some stirring words and a general reminder to follow Uncle Ho’s example. I like the colours and composition of this one, and the use of the lotus petals to frame the great man. Is it just me, or is the military fellow in green a little more prominent than the other citizens?

When will it rain?

Nice clouds, but not what I came for.

I left work yesterday and the air was throbbing with humidity, the wind picking up. I’d been keeping an eye on the various cloud formations out the window all afternoon, assessing their shade of grey and what they could bring. The odd crack of thunder had also kept me hopeful. It’s time, I thought, this reluctant rainy season is finally going to stop teasing us, the sky is going to dump its goodness, and I’m going to be on the 23rd floor of the Sheraton Hotel watching the show while sipping an overpriced cocktail.

Alas, I was wrong, again. I don’t know why I keep getting my hopes up.

Right now, it’s too hot in Vietnam, and it’s really starting to get under my, and a lot of other people’s skin. I think the usual Vietnamese conversation opener of ‘Have you eaten breakfast/lunch/dinner/rice yet?’ has been replaced with the more relevant (if obvious) ‘It’s hot!’, or ‘Nong qua!’ said while fanning or shading oneself from the blasting sun. This is always the hottest time of the year, however usually by May there’s been some rain or at least cloudy days to drop the temperature a little.

I’m sick of being drawn indoors and addicted to my air conditioner. Though I know I shouldn’t complain, as unlike most people in this country I have a wealth of options for cooling down. As compared to, for example, this woman. I have always marvelled at how these wiry women manage to carry these baskets; they have a special way of quickly tottering, which gives momentum to the groaning weight on the ends of their bamboo poles. Like many people, she works and lives most of her life on the street. Imagine doing that in close to 40 degree heat for days on end.

Fool for Love

Ever wondered what happened to Dustin Nguyen from 21 Jump Street? Over the past few years he's been making quite a few films back in 'Nam and this one is his latest. The sign above the box office said the genre of this film was 'spychology' but I think Romantic Comedy might be a bit more accurate. Dustin Nguyen's character, Dung, is the fool for love, ditching his job as a toilet attendant in a posh hotel in Saigon to follow the girl of his dreams to Nha Trang. She's the glamourous lead singer in a band and he's just a humble, hapless fellow with a rusty old Honda Cub, but love conquers all in the end. Most of the comedy is provided by the somewhat effeminate character (on the left of the poster) that Dung befriends and becomes the driver for in Nha Trang. There's some good old asian slapstick, including a chase scene where a Xe Om driver pursues a series 6 BMW. It's a fun film, with some good shots of Saigon and the lovely coast around Nha Trang, and has been very popular here, holding its own against Iron Man 2 and the other blockbusters.

More Reasons to Celebrate

One thing that happened on April 30 was that Vietnam celebrated 35 years of Independence and Communism. Another thing that happened was that a big, shiny shopping centre opened right in the heart of downtown Saigon. The new Vincom Centre is a 27 storey building with 8 levels of shopping and entertainment. We, along with hoardes of others, took a look around on Friday night. Not many shops are open yet, so there was just a lot of people wandering and gawking, and taking photos of themselves next to supersized posters of the brands yet to come, such as Jimmy Choo, Armani and Versace.

Although buildings are going sky high all around central Saigon, there aren't any towers in the immediate vicinity of Vincom, so it looms large from all angles. There is a long thin digital screen in the centre of the building, it must be dozens of storey's high. Pity those residents of the old apartment blocks across the road, who will have millions of pixels bouncing around their living rooms every evening from now on. Though the way things are going, they won't be there for too much longer.


So, what to do tomorrow, International Labour Day, also a holiday in Vietnam?  Maybe I'll go shopping.